Cassian listened, silently agreeing with Isaac. Cambria should have been furthest along at this point, but they were furthest from assimilation. It was frustrating but he had solutions.

“It needs more men as an integral part of what is happening.” Alys contributed after Isaac was finished, eyes cutting around her not in an unfriendly way, but certainly not with admiration. They could all see it: women were everything. Nevermerean soldiers were present, but they didn’t live among them. They lived in their barracks. The efforts to breed in weren’t going so well.

Cassian again agreed silently. His eye then fell to Regan Lassiter.

Regan walked alongside the king, for the first time in some time focusing not on him but on the world around her. She watched the women of Cambria, with their exotic dress and their powerful frames, move about their daily lives. Yes, some of the trappings of Nevermerean life were present — stone homes, the touches of some clothing and amenities, but the feeling was still one far different than that felt on the shores of Skia. Regan’s brow furrowed as she observed in obvious thought. Alys’s voice was enough to drag her from her musings. Natural irritation that it was. It took her a moment to realize Cassian’s attention had turned to her. Her brow still rumpled, she sighed.

“No, I don’t think it’s about men—not entirely anyway,” Regan said, eyes tracking back to the Cambrians as she scowled, “You can have every Cambrian woman in Nevermrean dresses, living in stone homes, training side-by-side with men, and even—well, you know…but that’ll only ever change the surface,” Regan’s tilted her head to the side as she observed a pair of Cambiran women sparring, “It’s not about influence, it’s about authority. If we’re just guiding them to take Nevermerean influences, they’ll only ever pick up the convenient ones. Authority is about obeying even when it’s not. Convenient, I mean.”

Regan looked back up at Cassian then, furrowed brow relaxing the longer she took him in.

The depth of thought conveyed in Regan’s response surprised Cassian. His eyes lingered on her an extra, thoughtful beat, appreciating what she had said. When Isaac chimed in to support some of what she was saying, he had words in return.

“So then,” he concluded for them, “you consider the current authority insufficient? Would a Nevermerean man at the top serve our purposes?” Nothing about the question conveyed the slightest edge of tongue-in-cheek, though it was surely there, gilded.

Ever since Cassian’s trust in her had been shaken, Regan had made an intentional effort to be more guarded. More professional, some might say. But it was a difficult endeavor, and it didn’t take much from Cassian for the surface of that shield to crack. The extra beat that his eyes stayed on her had the corner of her lip twitch, her eyes go soft. But as soon as the look appeared, it was gone again. She returned to attention at Cassian’s side, looking out over the Cambrian’s with a partly raised eyebrow. After a moment’s consideration, she spoke.

“If the governor was, uh, arranged to take a Nevermerean husband, you might kill two birds with one stone. Not upset the…natives by removing her entirely but elevating someone else that way.” Regan shrugged. “Seems a little weird she’s still not married anyway. Isn’t she supposed to be a Nevermerean princess?”